India’s easternmost district gets PM excellence award for innovation
The Hindu
NALC is a flexible, futuristic, leisure learning space-cum-library
GUWAHATI
Changlang in Arunachal Pradesh, India’s easternmost district, on Friday received the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration for its innovative New Age Learning Centre (NALC).
Sunny K. Singh, the district’s Deputy Commissioner who conceptualised the centre, received the award given in the category of “innovation”.
NALC is a flexible, futuristic, leisure learning space-cum-library set up in a part of the Miao subdivisional office to enable people from all age groups to learn and improve every aspect of their personality.
The space is designed according to the comfort, needs, and demands of the users. Anyone can access the facilities without any membership fee, Mr. Singh said, crediting the project to teamwork.
“Apart from government officials, NGO and community members are involved in the project. It is a proud moment for all of us,” he said.
He said that community involvement has helped NALC run sustainably. The award has motivated those involved to replicate the concept elsewhere in the district, arguably the most geographically challenged in the northeastern part of India.
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.